FSR: Edward Lasker analyzes this game in his book "Chess for Fun and Chess for Blood." He wrote that he overlooked 8...c3! winning a piece. He played a much weaker move instead, but managed to win in the end anyway.

Once: Here's a little historical fact that makes me giggle. In the days of fighting sail, captains used to prepare for battle by towing their lifeboats on a stout rope some distance behind their ships. And they would often fill these lifeboats with valuable thing like the captain's wooden furniture.

The idea was that this would preserve the lifeboats and the furniture when the cannonballs started flying about and smashing everything to pieces.

Which I guess would have been an odd sight - a frigate or galleon sailing into a fight with the enemy with the naval equivalent of a fleet of removal trucks bobbing behind them.

But odder still was the tradition that ships never fired on another ship's furniture boats. Oh no, that wouldn't be gentlemanly. You are about to pound each other to bits with cannon balls, shred sails and flesh alike with grape and musket shot, engage each other with cutlass and pistol...

...but you wouldn't dare put a scratch on the other sides' chippendales. Stop sniggering at the back - we're talking antique chairs not gentlemen with exageratedly bobbly stomachs removing their garments.

Unfortunately, such delicacies did not last long. It is an accepted tactic in modern warfare to disrupt an enemy's supply chain. Cut off his food. Attack his cities. You don't need to engage a strong military unit if you can knock out the catering and communications which support it.

And so it is with chess. We don't always attack the enemy's forward piece. We can often undermine it by attacking the piece that supports it. In today's POTD, that is the Bb2. This bishop supports both the white Qa3 and his Ne5. Kick the bishop and one or other of the white pieces fall.

Hence 8...c3 - shooting the furniture boats.

Okay, okay, I admit it. There is more to the story than meets the eye. One reason that ships floated their boats behind them was so that they wouldn't be turned into lethal splinters if hit during the fight. And 8...c3 does nothing more than win a minor piece for two pawns, which isn't a humungous advantange.

chessworm: Edward Lasker has commented on this game somewhere in his books. In that, I think, he mentions that he has seen that move, but did not play it for some reason. Anyone has further details to that?

NARC: I really liked todays puzzle. It's a very non-standard position, so I would not call it a standard combination. If I was white and somebody found c3 against me in internet blitz it would take weeks for me to recover.

gofer: It looks like white has sneaked up with Nxe5, winning a pawn, and
is now regretting that decision. The black queen is attacking both
Ne5 and Qa3, both are defended by the same piece Bb2. The problem
with <8 ... b5> is <9 Qa4+ ...> whatever black plays <9 ... Bc6/c6/Ke7/Kd8/Ne7/Nc6> then <10 Nxc4> is fine for white.

So we need to find a way to make white's life difficult. Overloading
Bb2 seems a nice way to start!

<8 ... c3>

Suddenly, white's DSB is struggling to defend both Qa3 and Ne5 and
survive! It can't move as that would lose a piece, so it must just stay
there! Moving Ne5 just loses Bb2! So moving Qa3 seems the only
sensible option.

Black has gained a knight for two pawns. The bishop must waste a
move getting to safety, black may complete its development before
white as black has presssure down the a8-h1 diagonal. I wouldn't
say that it was all over yet, but white has lost one of the wheels
on his cart...

gofer: <Once>: <There is more to the story than meets the eye. One reason that ships floated their boats behind them was so that they wouldn't be turned into lethal splinters if hit during the fight.>

Sorry, but this has got to be garbage...

:-)

...the entire ship is made from wood, where ever the cannon balls strike they are going to create huge lethal splinters, towing a couple of small boat-loads of furniture - to reduce the amount of potential wood that could be <turned into lethal splinters> - is not going to be among the reasons that they chose to off-load the furniture...

CHESSTTCAMPS: In this opening position, white has obtained the bishop pair at the cost of unsound development. The WQ has low mobility on a3 and the Bb2 is overburdened as a result, a weakness that black can exploit with

8... c3!

The tempting 8...b4(??) might appear to trap the queen on the wing, but after 9.Qa4+ Kf8 (c6 10.Nxc4 Qe7 11.a3 also looks very good for white) 10.Nxc4 Qc5 11.Qa5, the WQ escapes and white has won a pawn with positional advantage. This move wins a piece for two pawns:

Once: <gofer> I reckon there are several reasons. Sadly, keeping the captain's furniture safe was probably the least of them.

There was a morale issue. Most of the sailors couldn't swim, so it would have helped them to know that the boats were relatively safe from harm. Never mind that you were more likely to get squished by cannon balls or shredded by splinters before you got a chance to drown...

But according to the histories I've read, the chief reason <was> to reduce the risk from flying splinters. A large ship could carry two or three boats, often on the upper deck. And they did add to the risk of splinters as the deck was swept by enemy cannon fire.

Sure, the boats are not the only wooden structures on the upper deck and therefore not the only source of splinters, but you would want to "clear the decks" as much as possible.

Black's last move in this sequence (10...Nxc6) is a non-forcing move. All it does it restore the material count for both sides. And that gives white a free hand to make mischief. In this instance, white is able to use that free move to win the rook on h8 with 11. Bxg7.

As a general rule, each of the moves in a tactical sequence should either be forcing moves (checks and captures) or make such strong threats that the opponent has to respond to them. If ever we find ourselves making a non-forcing move in a sequence it is often a good sign that the variation isn't all that strong.

But you are in very good company. I suspect that kibitzers all round the world started on this puzzle by analysing 8...b4. I know I did!

Patriot: I like 8...c3. For example, 9.Qxd6 cxd6 10.Bxc3 dxe5 11.Bxe5 Nf6 followed by 12.Bxc7. Black gets a piece for two pawns and has a material advantage. This is unlike the Saturday puzzle where white at least gets a few pawns for a piece plus an attack on the king. But here there doesn't seem to be enough compensation for white since the development just isn't there.

Patriot: <morfishine><Black must avoid 8...c3 9.Qxd6...<9...cxb2?> due to 10.Qd4 bxa1+ 11.Qxa1 and Black doesn't have enough compensation for the Queen> I calculated this line as well but only posted what I thought was the PV (principal variation).

gofer: <Once>: Okay, I can understand the "clearing the decks" idea and so towing the boats was the best way to go, but I was referring to the furniture in the boats, not the boats... ...written text can be read in many ways...

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